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John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 10 blogs containing over 8000 articles with John having written over 4000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 16 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John is co-founder of InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and LinkedIn.

In one of the emails I got about my EMR Selection e-Book, someone suggested how important the direction of your EMR vendor is to the EMR selection process. Here’s my take on that subject.

The first issue is that you have to evaluate where your EMR vendor is at in the software development life cycle. Are they still innovating their product or are have they sold so much product that all they’re really doing is fighting fires? Personally, I think you want to find a vendor somewhere in the middle of those 2 extremes. You don’t want someone who is so new that they are missing really important features. However, you do want an EMR software vendor who wants and even needs your help to develop their product. This type of EMR vendor will listen to your support requests and even include many of the features you request into their product. In my experience, those large EMR companies are often so big that they ignore the little guy and mostly focus on the large accounts.

The second part of this issue is finding an EMR software that will grow with you as a clinic. When you first implement an EMR you’ll only be looking at implementing the basic features that are available. However, a few years down the road you’re going to be a much more sophisticated EMR user that will want to get access to your EMR data and to improve clinical processes. Will your EMR support your current “simplified” needs and will they be able to support your future “sophisticated” EMR needs?

Lots to think about when selecting an EMR. This is just one more facet to consider.

2 responses to "EMR Vendor’s Direction"

THAT’S TRUE. AN EMR VENDOR THAT WILL BE WILLING TO WORK WITH YOU AND CUSTOMIZE THE EMR TO YOUR PRACTICE IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. A SUCCESSFUL MEDICAL PRACTICE SHOULD BE ABLE TO EVOLVE AND ADAPT CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS, CHANGING MEDICAL PRACTICES, HEALTHCARE REFORM,ETC…THEREFORE, IT IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT TO HAVE AN EMR THAT WILL EVOLVE WITH YOUR EVOLVING PRACTICE. HOPEFULLY, THE VENDOR WON’T CHARGE YOU AN ARM AND A LEG FOR SUCH UPGRADES.

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